Thirty Years
by TexanRose
Summary: Where are Aria and Ezra in thirty years? No Malcolm/Maggie. Ezria future-fic.


**This is a future-fic with Aria and Ezra. There is no Maggie or Malcolm. I don't care for that story-line. It is just a one-shot, but if you like it, I can come up with more like it. I do not own PLL. Enjoy! Please review.**

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It was late when the couple walked into their suburban home. She set some party favors and a large piece of vanilla cake on the kitchen counter. He swayed as he made his way up the stairs, slightly drunk. She sighed. After kicking off her heels by the front door, she followed him up to their bedroom. When he wasn't there, she went into the master bathroom and carefully took off her jewelry.

She had just managed to take off her earrings and her necklace when she felt her husband hugging her from behind. She leaned into him as she sat back in her vanity stool. He kissed her shoulder before unzipping her dress in a practiced move. As purple silk pooled at her feet, she looked into his eyes questioningly. He stared back at her. Finding her answer, she pulled the pins from her hair until it cascaded down her shoulders. It was an echo of the color it had been when they had first met. Hair dye and bleach had changed her brown locks dramatically, but he didn't seem to mind. He kissed her thoroughly in affirmation before tugging her arm and leading her to the bed.

She followed him willingly, rubbing his hand and looking at the once-dark hair at the back of his neck. When they reached the edge of the bed, she stopped him. She tiptoed and leaned up towards his face. As she kissed him, she began undoing the buttons of his starched white shirt while he worked on her white lacy bra. A moment later they were one the bed, lost in the throes of passion. It was a happy night, but it was also a sad one. It was an early morning when no words were needed.

It was hours later, when the very first rays of dawn lightened the black sky that he said something. "I love you, you know." Facing her in the bed, he fingered the spun silk of her hair and caressed her cheek.

She smiled sadly, "I know." She paused for a moment as she traced the outline of his eyebrow with her finger. "I love you too."

He looked at her intensely, willing words to come out of his mouth. "I'm sorry that things didn't work out the way you wanted them to." He tried to rub her arm as she burrowed deeper under the covers.

She turned away from him and looked out the window of the master bedroom. "It's been a long time since we've stayed up until dawn." She listened for the birds that would inevitably chirp as they greeted the sun.

He moved in closer to her and leaned over until his lips tickled her ear, "It's been a long time for a lot of things." He nibbled on her earlobe, stopping only when she turned to face him again.

"I know you're disappointed. You went into her room when we first got home."

He sighed and turned onto his back, hands folded over his chest, "She was supposed to be our little girl."

She was silent for a moment before she responded, "I think my dad is coming back to haunt us from the grave. Maybe it's payback, for everything we did to him."

He turned to look at her, "Don't even say that. You now he would have loved to have been there. She would have loved for him to have been there too." He watched as his wife's eyes filled with tears. He felt his own throat tighten.

"I miss him, Ezra. And I miss her too. And it's not like she won't be back. But something's gone. Call it a mother's intuition or insanity or irrationality. Or whatever. She's our only child. It will be a long time before we see her again."

"She's my daughter too," he ground out, his emotions battling with reason. "Dancing with her yesterday, at her wedding. I can't believe that she's married, that she's not ours anymore."

"Ezra," she paused, taking a moment to compose herself. "Susannah is our daughter. She will always be our daughter. But her life is with David now. I'm only sorry that she's moving to China with him. I'm used to having her nearby." The mournful look overtook her face again.

"Aria," he faced her, and let out a frustrated sigh. "You're just as beautiful as the day I met you. More beautiful."

"Ezra, that was thirty years ago, before crow's feet and gray hair and giving birth to a child."

"You're just as beautiful as the day I met you," he repeated. "Remember us on our wedding day?"

"We were son young and nervous and scared about what everybody would think."

Ezra shook his head. "We were happy. We were more than happy." He paused. "Do you think that's what Susannah felt like?"

Aria cleared her throat. "I was younger than Susannah when we got married."

Ezra nodded, "But I was older than David."

"I remember dancing with my dad at our wedding," she continued, "he tried not to step on my dress, and failed miserably. I think there's still a dark spot on the hem. But I didn't care. He was my dad, and he was at my wedding. And that meant more than anything. I'm sure Susannah felt the same way about you. She might have a husband, but you will always be her daddy."

He leaned in and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you," he murmured.

"Always," she responded. "I'll miss Susannah, and I'm sad that she couldn't stay near us. But she and David will be back in New York someday, and we'll still be here, waiting for them. We'll be a little older, a little grayer, but we'll still be here. You'll still be teaching at the university, and I'll have my writing."

"Things will change," he whispered, as he shut his eyes. "It's inevitable."

"But good things remain the same," she finished. "We could have grandkids you know."

"I'm only fifty-four," he moaned. "Why do I feel so old?"

She smacked his arm. "I'm only forty-seven. How do you think I feel?"

He pulled her close. "I think you feel warm and soft in my arms. Where you're supposed to be."

She snuggled against him, her back against his chest. "Where we're supposed to be," she whispered. They fell asleep like that, enveloped in each other's arms, as the rosy rays of dawn peeked into their bedroom window.

The events of the past thirty years might have brought them together, linked them in a way that was irrevocable and unchangeable. They were no longer teacher and student, adult and minor. They were husband and wife, father and mother. It would be the events of the next thirty years that kept them together, that reminded them of why they had fallen in love in the first place. They would continue to live as they always had, love-struck and with each other.


End file.
